Hotel Marketing: Facebook and that article that says “We’ll Pass”

I couldn’t post a comment for some odd javascript reason… from this article here:
https://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/facebook-for-hotel-marketing/

I think it is a great thought, and well done for saying so.

Personally, I think you *need* to be there… set up a page, add some nice content, and let people chit chat about how they wistfully remember their time, or look forward to their next stay.  I don’t see much activity, but it is there.  What’s more your link is out there a bit more on a high pageranked site, so it helps a bit with SEO.  Equally if not more important, you end up having a way for guests or fans or general public to reach you…. at least there’s that.

But I ran some low level ad experiments with some fairly reputable boutique hotels I work with, and the results of FB “highly targeted” marketing with their ad model was… I mean… laughable.  People just don’t click on internet ads anymore.  There is actually something called “banner blindness” to the ad guys.  Whatever it is… people visually blocking ads out or just not caring… people aren’t clicking.  (In my experience at least)

Only when I stopped trying to promote the pages and let them sit, and organically get discovered, is the point I started seeing 100’s of fans and conversations.  Of course, this might only be for specific brands that have a specific offering.  It might be hard to get a budget roadside in the middle of nowhere to get a following, but a lot of brands spark loyalty, interest and even curiosity.  Many of the pages I work on have 100’s of fans.

But still…. they don’t actually *DO* anything.  They don’t interact in meaningful ways. They certainly don’t book rooms off the FB page.  They might book elsewhere, then chat about their upcmoing stay on FB…. but there isn’t any meaningful traffic through to the booking engine, to say the least.

I wouldn’t spend a dime, but I think you need to at least have a page there.  Just let it reinforce the brand, be another place with your link, and another point of accessibility for guests.

Great article. Thanks for the thoughts.  This had been back in my mind for a bit I think.  A few months ago I was thinking they might play a big role, but boy that fell apart fast. =)